Ball feeding arrangements may be used in a variety of applications, such as for feeding ball-shaped objects in an industrial process, or for feeding projectiles to a firing chamber in a compressed gas driven weapon. An example of a ball feeding arrangement is a loading mechanism in a paintball gun.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,502,567 describes a paintball loader comprising a paintball container and a fin device of circular shape which is driven with a rotational movement by a drive motor via an axle shaft that is upwardly directed and coupled to the rotational centre of the fin device. The paintballs are pushed by the rotation of the fins of the fin device and are consequently pressed forward and outward from the rotational centre by the centrifugal force. An outlet tube is connected to the paintball container with its input opening located in the outer wall of the container. Thus, the rotational speed of the fin device presses the paintballs into the opening of the outlet tube and into the paintball marker.
EP 1 653 189 describes an alternative paintball loader comprising a rotor body having at least one rotor fin, and a drive motor for rotating the rotor body in a first direction. The paintball loader has a central outlet located radially inwards of the tip of the rotor fin and an abutment body arranged to interact with the at least one rotor fin. When the rotor body is rotated, a paintball, located in a space formed between the at least one rotor fin and the abutment body, is pushed out of the paintball loader through the central outlet.
However, occasionally a jam may occur when one or more balls get stuck and block the movement of the rotor element that pushes the balls so that the feeding of balls is interrupted. The jam may also cause fragile balls, such as paintballs, to break when they are squeezed by the rotor element. Additionally, the drive motor may be damaged as the rotational resistance exceeds the strength of the drive motor.